Trainwreck: The Real Project X

1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,074 2 00:00:17,392 --> 00:00:21,479 Haren is a very calm and green and peaceful place. 3 00:00:22,647 --> 00:00:25,233 We don't have tourists, uh, here in Haren, 4 00:00:25,900 --> 00:00:27,485 and that's, uh, what we like. 5 00:00:28,903 --> 00:00:30,947 Normally, there's nothing happening. 6 00:00:32,741 --> 00:00:34,617 Apart from that one particular day. 7 00:00:40,582 --> 00:00:41,583 Haren! 8 00:00:45,295 --> 00:00:46,671 It was Friday night. 9 00:00:47,422 --> 00:00:49,799 We are pumped up to go to the party. 10 00:00:51,593 --> 00:00:55,805 We're going to the biggest birthday party in the history in the Netherlands. 11 00:00:57,849 --> 00:01:00,935 The strangest thing, it was in, like, this small town. 12 00:01:01,019 --> 00:01:04,481 It was the first time I heard of this place, Haren. 13 00:01:05,065 --> 00:01:08,068 <i>A Facebook invitation</i> <i>to a girl's 16th birthday party</i> 14 00:01:08,151 --> 00:01:08,985 <i>went viral.</i> 15 00:01:09,069 --> 00:01:11,946 <i>The girl had posted a message</i> <i>inviting her friends,</i> 16 00:01:12,030 --> 00:01:14,532 <i>but forgot to mark the event as private.</i> 17 00:01:14,616 --> 00:01:17,952 All I wanted was just to have a good 16th birthday, 18 00:01:18,036 --> 00:01:20,747 but it really got a bit out of control. 19 00:01:21,831 --> 00:01:25,585 Some of my friends said it might be turning into a <i>Project X </i>party. 20 00:01:29,089 --> 00:01:31,758 <i>Project X, </i>that movie, fueled the fire. 21 00:01:35,095 --> 00:01:38,807 Wait a minute. 17,000 people are invited to my house? 22 00:01:38,890 --> 00:01:40,809 Are they gonna show up? 23 00:01:42,477 --> 00:01:44,437 It was a scary situation. 24 00:01:45,063 --> 00:01:49,943 If this Project X escalates, we will have disaster. 25 00:01:51,778 --> 00:01:54,489 Let's be clear. There is no party here. 26 00:01:54,572 --> 00:01:56,032 Fuck off. 27 00:01:56,116 --> 00:01:58,326 We're gonna do this real movie in real life. 28 00:01:58,993 --> 00:01:59,953 Let's go. 29 00:02:00,036 --> 00:02:03,331 Where is the party? The party is here! 30 00:02:03,414 --> 00:02:06,751 Everybody was jumping, drinking beer, having fun. 31 00:02:09,504 --> 00:02:11,881 The energy just made a 180 all of a sudden. 32 00:02:16,344 --> 00:02:17,512 People just went berserk. 33 00:02:17,595 --> 00:02:18,972 It was completely out of control. 34 00:02:20,807 --> 00:02:23,893 Oh my God, they are gonna destroy everything. 35 00:02:26,104 --> 00:02:27,939 I was worried they'd reach the house 36 00:02:28,022 --> 00:02:30,108 and, um, destroy whatever they could. 37 00:02:30,942 --> 00:02:33,361 Burn it down, pretty much like in the movie. 38 00:03:00,013 --> 00:03:02,807 After everything that happened with the party, 39 00:03:03,391 --> 00:03:04,726 I left the Netherlands. 40 00:03:08,688 --> 00:03:11,608 {\an8}Nowadays, I don't come home that much anymore. 41 00:03:12,734 --> 00:03:15,945 I don't think the Dutch have forgotten what happened. 42 00:03:18,531 --> 00:03:21,201 People see the Netherlands as quite a party country. 43 00:03:23,077 --> 00:03:24,996 A lot is permitted here, right? 44 00:03:25,788 --> 00:03:28,208 Uh, weed, prostitutes. 45 00:03:29,375 --> 00:03:32,045 But in reality, the Netherlands is very controlled. 46 00:03:32,837 --> 00:03:36,049 The Dutch don't like it when people break our unwritten rules. 47 00:03:37,759 --> 00:03:40,803 But I never tended to be someone who conformed. 48 00:03:40,887 --> 00:03:44,515 Sometimes when I talked to my dad, he would just sort of remind me that 49 00:03:45,975 --> 00:03:48,144 you know, when you stick your head above the grass… 50 00:03:48,228 --> 00:03:50,730 …it also might get cut off. 51 00:03:55,652 --> 00:03:58,112 When I turned 16, I told my parents 52 00:03:58,196 --> 00:04:00,782 I would love to throw a birthday party here at home. 53 00:04:00,865 --> 00:04:03,701 {\an8}Sixteen is an important birthday for us in the Netherlands, 54 00:04:03,785 --> 00:04:06,371 {\an8}especially because the drinking age then was 16. 55 00:04:07,413 --> 00:04:09,958 Back then, everyone used Facebook for everything. 56 00:04:10,041 --> 00:04:14,545 {\an8}Popularity was associated with how many friends you had, 57 00:04:14,629 --> 00:04:16,297 you know, how many likes you got. 58 00:04:17,257 --> 00:04:20,176 {\an8}People wanted to show that they were fun, right, 59 00:04:20,260 --> 00:04:22,011 {\an8}that they were doing cool things. 60 00:04:23,054 --> 00:04:28,059 So I created the event, something like "Merthe's 16th birthday." 61 00:04:28,142 --> 00:04:30,311 I invited 78 people, to be exact. 62 00:04:30,895 --> 00:04:34,732 {\an8}It asked whether I wanted to make it public or private. 63 00:04:35,233 --> 00:04:36,609 I clicked "public." 64 00:04:43,616 --> 00:04:48,204 {\an8}We met Merthe in 2012 when she joined our volleyball team. 65 00:04:51,416 --> 00:04:54,085 She was the new girl. She didn't know anybody. 66 00:04:54,168 --> 00:04:58,089 We went to different schools. We lived in the city center of Groningen. 67 00:05:03,261 --> 00:05:06,681 And she was from a smaller town next to Groningen called Haren. 68 00:05:10,018 --> 00:05:14,564 People living in Groningen view people living in Haren as, 69 00:05:14,647 --> 00:05:17,233 "They're from Haren. They're probably posh." 70 00:05:17,317 --> 00:05:18,151 Yes. 71 00:05:18,234 --> 00:05:19,902 Didn't have to be, but everybody thought it. 72 00:05:19,986 --> 00:05:20,820 Yes. 73 00:05:22,864 --> 00:05:27,368 But, eventually, her personality was completely different than we expected. 74 00:05:30,788 --> 00:05:32,540 {\an8}She could make jokes about herself. 75 00:05:32,623 --> 00:05:35,585 {\an8}She was very easy to talk to. She fitted right in. 76 00:05:37,337 --> 00:05:38,671 When she invited us, 77 00:05:38,755 --> 00:05:40,882 we were super excited to come to her party. 78 00:05:40,965 --> 00:05:42,925 -Merthe was a lot of fun to hang out with. -Yes. 79 00:05:43,843 --> 00:05:46,387 {\an8}We all loved watching Hollywood films. 80 00:05:46,471 --> 00:05:51,100 {\an8}Things like <i>Mean Girls, Easy A, Hangover.</i> 81 00:05:51,184 --> 00:05:53,561 {\an8}Life in these movies was quite different 82 00:05:53,644 --> 00:05:55,480 from what we experienced in the Netherlands. 83 00:05:56,481 --> 00:06:00,568 And kids my age wanted to experience something similar. 84 00:06:06,908 --> 00:06:10,870 {\an8}When I got to school the next day, now and then, I was looking at my phone. 85 00:06:11,412 --> 00:06:13,456 Ah, the old iPhone. 86 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:15,291 So small. 87 00:06:16,709 --> 00:06:20,421 I can't remember how we could type on it with a screen of this size. 88 00:06:21,089 --> 00:06:22,465 I guess it was the first time 89 00:06:22,548 --> 00:06:24,717 when you could use social media on your phone. 90 00:06:24,801 --> 00:06:27,011 So events were in the palm of your hand now, 91 00:06:27,095 --> 00:06:29,180 and you always knew what was going on. 92 00:06:31,099 --> 00:06:32,475 {\an8}Somewhere around lunchtime, 93 00:06:32,558 --> 00:06:35,019 {\an8}the number of attendees was ticking up slowly, 94 00:06:35,103 --> 00:06:36,687 but nothing out of the ordinary. 95 00:06:38,398 --> 00:06:41,109 I was chilling out in between classes. 96 00:06:42,985 --> 00:06:47,031 {\an8}Suddenly, I got a ping on my phone, and it was an invite to the party. 97 00:06:47,824 --> 00:06:51,494 I went to school with Merthe, but I wasn't really friends with her. 98 00:06:51,577 --> 00:06:54,080 She lived in a nice house. They're a little bit elite. 99 00:06:54,163 --> 00:06:56,290 Everyone in our school knows where they live. 100 00:06:56,374 --> 00:06:59,293 It looks like a little bit of the, um, <i>Home Alone </i>house. 101 00:06:59,377 --> 00:07:02,004 And of course it looked like a good house for a party. 102 00:07:03,256 --> 00:07:06,300 And then I saw it was a public party. 103 00:07:06,384 --> 00:07:08,302 I was a little bit of a rebel. 104 00:07:08,386 --> 00:07:12,390 So I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if I invite more people?" 105 00:07:12,473 --> 00:07:16,519 Yeah, but I couldn't invite all of my people at once. 106 00:07:16,602 --> 00:07:20,398 So I needed to click on every person who was in my contact list 107 00:07:20,481 --> 00:07:21,983 to invite them personally. 108 00:07:22,066 --> 00:07:24,235 It took me a long time to do it. 109 00:07:24,318 --> 00:07:26,237 I sent like 500 invites. 110 00:07:28,322 --> 00:07:31,367 Everyone was so excited about inviting more friends. 111 00:07:34,495 --> 00:07:37,290 {\an8}After the break, one of my friends came up to me 112 00:07:37,373 --> 00:07:40,001 to say, "Laurens is crashing your event 113 00:07:40,084 --> 00:07:42,086 and talking about inviting a lot of people." 114 00:07:42,170 --> 00:07:44,464 That's probably when I started to check my phone. 115 00:07:45,047 --> 00:07:48,718 There were now 3,000 people invited to my party. 116 00:07:50,428 --> 00:07:52,346 What the hell is going on? 117 00:07:52,430 --> 00:07:53,681 People were very enthusiastic 118 00:07:53,764 --> 00:07:56,767 and were posting things on the timeline of the, uh, event. 119 00:07:59,812 --> 00:08:01,397 And then some of my friends said 120 00:08:01,481 --> 00:08:04,066 it might be turning into a <i>Project X </i>party. 121 00:08:05,818 --> 00:08:08,613 {\an8}Mom, Dad, it's me, Thomas. 122 00:08:08,696 --> 00:08:10,531 <i>I wanted to be cool for one night.</i> 123 00:08:10,615 --> 00:08:14,243 The <i>Project X </i>movie came out earlier in 2012. 124 00:08:14,327 --> 00:08:16,621 <i>Tonight's about changing the game.</i> 125 00:08:19,123 --> 00:08:22,251 Every teenager wants to go to a party like that. 126 00:08:22,335 --> 00:08:24,670 I remember people jumping off roofs. 127 00:08:28,633 --> 00:08:30,885 The worst nightmare of a parent. 128 00:08:33,638 --> 00:08:34,639 -Hello? <i>-Thomas?</i> 129 00:08:34,722 --> 00:08:37,099 -Dad, hey. <i>-We just wanted to call one last time.</i> 130 00:08:37,183 --> 00:08:39,560 <i>Make sure you were set for the night.</i> 131 00:08:39,644 --> 00:08:41,437 This is too much out of control. 132 00:08:45,358 --> 00:08:47,235 Best party movie ever. 133 00:08:47,902 --> 00:08:49,529 Now, people were hyping each other up, 134 00:08:49,612 --> 00:08:53,241 posting pictures of, you know, the gnome with the ecstasy. 135 00:08:54,784 --> 00:08:57,662 Suddenly, I got texts, messages on my phone, 136 00:08:57,745 --> 00:08:59,080 "What a really good idea." 137 00:08:59,163 --> 00:09:01,040 And then it went rolling and rolling. 138 00:09:02,542 --> 00:09:05,086 {\an8}Yeah, it was exciting, and it was cool. 139 00:09:05,169 --> 00:09:07,964 So I took to Twitter and tweeted something like, 140 00:09:08,047 --> 00:09:10,716 "Just 3,500 people coming." 141 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:14,220 I really thought it's just a joke. It will calm down. 142 00:09:15,846 --> 00:09:17,765 But it just didn't stop. 143 00:09:17,848 --> 00:09:20,226 The number of invites went up and up. 144 00:09:20,309 --> 00:09:22,103 And it was doubling, tripling. 145 00:09:23,020 --> 00:09:23,938 It was crazy. 146 00:09:25,356 --> 00:09:27,024 {\an8}I don't think we had any class at all. 147 00:09:27,108 --> 00:09:30,444 {\an8}It was just people hanging over tables 148 00:09:30,528 --> 00:09:33,781 and absorbing this crazy thing that was happening. 149 00:09:33,864 --> 00:09:36,450 And also the teacher was sort of into it. 150 00:09:37,994 --> 00:09:42,164 At this point, it's starting to feel like maybe this isn't gonna stop by itself. 151 00:09:42,748 --> 00:09:47,128 So I looked at my phone and I tried to find an option to delete the event, 152 00:09:47,211 --> 00:09:49,547 but at that time, you couldn't from the phone. 153 00:09:49,630 --> 00:09:52,049 It was only possible on a desktop version. 154 00:09:53,301 --> 00:09:55,011 {\an8}But I couldn't go home yet. 155 00:09:55,094 --> 00:09:57,430 So there was nothing I could do in this moment. 156 00:10:00,975 --> 00:10:05,271 When the class finally finished, I quickly took my bicycle and went home. 157 00:10:06,564 --> 00:10:11,360 I definitely felt, "I can't hide this," like, "I have to ring the alarm bells." 158 00:10:12,862 --> 00:10:16,032 {\an8}But I don't think my parents really understood social media. 159 00:10:16,115 --> 00:10:18,200 You know, whenever I posted anything on Facebook, 160 00:10:18,284 --> 00:10:19,994 they'd say, "Did you send them an email?" 161 00:10:21,746 --> 00:10:24,081 And so I showed my dad the event. 162 00:10:25,416 --> 00:10:29,670 And he was more like, "Huh? What-- What happened?" 163 00:10:31,547 --> 00:10:34,300 "17,000 people are invited to my house?" 164 00:10:34,383 --> 00:10:36,302 "Are they gonna show up?" 165 00:10:37,511 --> 00:10:42,224 But he did realize quite early the trouble that the whole family was in. 166 00:10:43,392 --> 00:10:46,812 So my mom started calling the police… 167 00:10:48,356 --> 00:10:51,192 …to see if she could find someone that could help us. 168 00:10:52,234 --> 00:10:57,281 But I'm not sure the police understood what the Facebook event was. 169 00:10:57,365 --> 00:11:01,243 So we decided that it would be best for me to delete the event. 170 00:11:02,578 --> 00:11:04,789 {\an8}It was a mixed feeling, right? 171 00:11:04,872 --> 00:11:07,750 "Okay, now, it's a good thing that it's over." 172 00:11:08,751 --> 00:11:13,214 But at the same time, it's like an anticlimax or something. 173 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:21,972 I don't have any connection to Merthe, 174 00:11:22,556 --> 00:11:25,518 except that I saw her birthday party on Facebook. 175 00:11:26,602 --> 00:11:30,898 And it was, like, the first event to explode like this. 176 00:11:31,482 --> 00:11:32,983 I was an 18-year-old kid. 177 00:11:33,067 --> 00:11:37,071 And I just wanted to experience that one epic party, like the <i>Project X.</i> 178 00:11:37,154 --> 00:11:39,073 I remember getting something to drink, 179 00:11:39,156 --> 00:11:41,617 refreshed my Facebook, and I saw it was gone. 180 00:11:41,701 --> 00:11:45,496 "404, page not found." I was a little bit disappointed. 181 00:11:45,579 --> 00:11:47,081 Things don't happen here. 182 00:11:47,164 --> 00:11:49,709 I was having fun. Everybody was having fun. 183 00:11:49,792 --> 00:11:53,754 And for me, it felt like it was too early to end. 184 00:11:54,338 --> 00:11:57,967 So that's when I created the copycat event at Merthe's house. 185 00:12:00,052 --> 00:12:01,929 I called it Project X Haren. 186 00:12:03,180 --> 00:12:04,974 A surprise birthday party for her. 187 00:12:07,893 --> 00:12:11,063 {\an8}That evening, I had plans to go to the cinema with one of my best friends. 188 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:14,942 And so we were standing in the line for the popcorn 189 00:12:15,025 --> 00:12:16,819 and hearing the people in front of us. 190 00:12:16,902 --> 00:12:18,946 "Oh my God, did you see that event?" 191 00:12:19,029 --> 00:12:21,073 "Project X. Yeah, I'm gonna go." 192 00:12:21,157 --> 00:12:23,200 We're like, "What the fuck?" 193 00:12:23,701 --> 00:12:24,869 "What's going on?" 194 00:12:26,412 --> 00:12:28,289 My phone is blowing up with messages. 195 00:12:28,372 --> 00:12:30,875 This new event has been created 196 00:12:30,958 --> 00:12:34,545 using a lot of references to the <i>Project X </i>movie 197 00:12:34,628 --> 00:12:37,214 and inviting everyone to my house. 198 00:12:37,798 --> 00:12:39,592 What the hell? 199 00:12:39,675 --> 00:12:42,678 What? Who did this? 200 00:12:44,764 --> 00:12:47,224 It went really crazy and viral. 201 00:12:47,308 --> 00:12:50,144 It was meme after meme after meme after meme. 202 00:12:54,774 --> 00:12:58,611 The memes is what really did it for me because I'm a meme fanatic. 203 00:12:58,694 --> 00:13:00,863 I was just balling. 204 00:13:00,946 --> 00:13:05,326 There were other memes of like, "Where is the party? Here is the party." 205 00:13:05,409 --> 00:13:08,788 One of them photoshopped me. 206 00:13:08,871 --> 00:13:12,374 It was really surreal. You can't believe it's happening to you. 207 00:13:13,918 --> 00:13:15,669 What on earth was I gonna do? 208 00:13:21,300 --> 00:13:24,136 I was the first elected night mayor of Groningen. 209 00:13:26,222 --> 00:13:30,309 And I was responsible for all the nightlife in the city. 210 00:13:30,392 --> 00:13:32,603 Organizing festivals. 211 00:13:32,686 --> 00:13:35,105 Dealing with bars, with problems. 212 00:13:35,189 --> 00:13:37,358 In the Netherlands, it looks very liberal, 213 00:13:37,441 --> 00:13:42,446 but there's also a lot of structure, a lot of rules in the background. 214 00:13:43,030 --> 00:13:46,700 We have a city council, but after five o'clock, they go home, 215 00:13:46,784 --> 00:13:47,952 and I come in. 216 00:13:49,203 --> 00:13:52,706 I was on Facebook, and I saw this event coming up. 217 00:13:53,499 --> 00:13:56,001 It was a little bit weird because it was an event in Haren. 218 00:13:57,753 --> 00:14:01,382 It's a little bit of a boring town. Nothing is happening there. 219 00:14:01,465 --> 00:14:03,592 Only some rich kids living there. 220 00:14:04,301 --> 00:14:07,638 But then I started to receive phone calls from residents. 221 00:14:08,180 --> 00:14:12,351 They had a bad feeling there was something not really right. 222 00:14:15,604 --> 00:14:18,983 {\an8}I really thought it potentially could go wrong. 223 00:14:20,568 --> 00:14:23,445 But I could not do anything on my own. 224 00:14:24,071 --> 00:14:27,533 I thought action should come from, uh, local authorities. 225 00:14:28,701 --> 00:14:30,619 I was just working on my laptop. 226 00:14:33,330 --> 00:14:37,126 {\an8}And then there was this message popping up on the phone. 227 00:14:40,588 --> 00:14:43,424 Somebody had sent me the <i>Project X </i>trailer. 228 00:14:44,842 --> 00:14:47,511 There were streets that were on fire. 229 00:14:47,595 --> 00:14:52,349 My thought then was, "Oh my God, they are gonna destroy everything." 230 00:14:54,518 --> 00:14:58,814 If this is going to happen in a little village like Haren, 231 00:14:58,898 --> 00:15:01,567 we will have disaster. 232 00:15:03,819 --> 00:15:05,154 I love Haren very much. 233 00:15:05,237 --> 00:15:07,114 Really, very much. 234 00:15:07,615 --> 00:15:11,619 In fact, I was a member of city council on the opposite side of the mayor. 235 00:15:12,536 --> 00:15:17,124 {\an8}I thought, "This is gonna be huge." So I tried to warn the mayor. 236 00:15:18,375 --> 00:15:21,629 But he was away for a couple of days, so I couldn't reach him. 237 00:15:22,421 --> 00:15:24,840 I tried to contact the mayor. 238 00:15:25,341 --> 00:15:28,469 I wanted to help. I wanted to solve this problem. 239 00:15:28,552 --> 00:15:30,512 Something a night mayor has to do. 240 00:15:30,596 --> 00:15:32,473 But he didn't respond. 241 00:15:33,223 --> 00:15:36,894 So every day I called the city council of Haren. 242 00:15:37,394 --> 00:15:41,315 They were used to dealing with lampposts, crossings. 243 00:15:41,815 --> 00:15:44,026 So they were not taking it serious. 244 00:15:44,109 --> 00:15:47,905 We must, uh, find a way to stop this. 245 00:15:47,988 --> 00:15:51,325 We must find a way-- a way to protect people in Haren. 246 00:15:55,496 --> 00:15:58,749 {\an8}My parents at this point started to get a bit worried. 247 00:15:58,832 --> 00:16:00,834 "Are people actually gonna show up?" 248 00:16:00,918 --> 00:16:03,796 You know, "Will we not have a house anymore in one week?" 249 00:16:05,464 --> 00:16:07,967 And then we, obviously, started thinking about, 250 00:16:08,050 --> 00:16:10,678 "Okay, what can we do in order to take this down?" 251 00:16:11,804 --> 00:16:17,601 The admin of Project X Haren was someone called Jorik Clarck. 252 00:16:17,685 --> 00:16:22,022 So we went back and forth a little bit, making snarly comments at each other. 253 00:16:28,988 --> 00:16:31,031 I think she liked the attention. 254 00:16:31,699 --> 00:16:34,910 Yeah, I made her, uh, Facebook famous. 255 00:16:36,745 --> 00:16:38,122 Jorik didn't understand 256 00:16:38,205 --> 00:16:41,583 that it really had an impact on my life and on our family. 257 00:16:41,667 --> 00:16:44,044 And I don't think he grasped that. 258 00:16:44,628 --> 00:16:47,297 But I wanted to try to convince him to take it down. 259 00:16:47,798 --> 00:16:51,135 And so a friend, who was connected to him on Facebook, 260 00:16:51,218 --> 00:16:52,386 she gave me his number. 261 00:16:55,264 --> 00:16:57,725 I'm hesitant to pick up numbers I don't know, 262 00:16:57,808 --> 00:16:59,059 but I was like, "Ah, fuck it." 263 00:16:59,143 --> 00:17:01,645 So I slide it, I pick it up, and it says, 264 00:17:01,729 --> 00:17:03,480 "Hey, is this Jorik?" 265 00:17:03,564 --> 00:17:06,608 I'm like, uh, "Yeah, who am I speaking with?" 266 00:17:06,692 --> 00:17:10,154 "Well, this is Merthe's dad." And I was like, "Oh shit." 267 00:17:11,321 --> 00:17:13,991 He was a little mad at me. 268 00:17:15,576 --> 00:17:18,787 He explained to me, like, people were climbing over their fence 269 00:17:18,871 --> 00:17:22,583 and taking pictures of them inside their living room. 270 00:17:23,208 --> 00:17:25,502 And that was the point that it finally hit me. 271 00:17:25,586 --> 00:17:29,214 If I'm actually ruining their life, that's not something I want. 272 00:17:29,298 --> 00:17:32,551 So that's when I put out the message saying that the party's over. 273 00:17:34,219 --> 00:17:36,638 And people didn't like that. 274 00:17:42,311 --> 00:17:45,689 When he finally took it down, obviously, there was a lot of relief. 275 00:17:45,773 --> 00:17:46,774 It's over. 276 00:17:48,567 --> 00:17:50,903 Then a few hours later, 277 00:17:51,737 --> 00:17:53,238 another event popped up… 278 00:17:55,574 --> 00:17:56,617 …which was crazy. 279 00:17:57,534 --> 00:17:58,619 It shocked me. 280 00:17:59,787 --> 00:18:02,039 It was like an exact copy of my page. 281 00:18:02,956 --> 00:18:05,292 The numbers went up very, very fast. 282 00:18:05,876 --> 00:18:08,378 There were already 30,000 people invited. 283 00:18:10,881 --> 00:18:12,925 It was a weird name to have. 284 00:18:13,008 --> 00:18:16,887 <i>Der Führer </i>obviously has a very negative connotation 285 00:18:16,970 --> 00:18:18,889 in the German language. 286 00:18:20,265 --> 00:18:23,143 So I thought I'd try to reason with the admins, 287 00:18:23,227 --> 00:18:26,396 saying how serious it was, 288 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:31,318 and how really we were urging and really asking them to take it down 289 00:18:31,401 --> 00:18:34,238 because it was having a really big impact on our lives, 290 00:18:34,321 --> 00:18:36,990 and, um, it wasn't just a joke. 291 00:18:37,574 --> 00:18:40,452 And the only response that I got were two words. 292 00:18:41,036 --> 00:18:41,912 "Eat shit." 293 00:18:45,916 --> 00:18:48,794 The rumors about this party started getting bigger and bigger. 294 00:18:48,877 --> 00:18:51,922 There was gonna be a stage, and there were artists coming. 295 00:18:52,631 --> 00:18:57,010 Heineken was even gonna sponsor the event, like it was some kind of festival. 296 00:18:57,094 --> 00:18:58,220 That was crazy. 297 00:19:01,723 --> 00:19:03,976 I was listening to the radio in the car, 298 00:19:04,059 --> 00:19:07,354 and, suddenly, they were talking about Project X. 299 00:19:07,938 --> 00:19:09,148 <i>Merthe speaking.</i> 300 00:19:09,231 --> 00:19:10,774 <i>It's Timor and Coen from 3FM.</i> 301 00:19:10,858 --> 00:19:11,859 -<i>Hi.</i> -<i>Hi.</i> 302 00:19:11,942 --> 00:19:14,611 <i>The party's coming up?</i> 303 00:19:15,195 --> 00:19:17,823 Unfortunately, everyone had my phone number. 304 00:19:17,906 --> 00:19:20,993 And one of the first calls that I got was from <i>De Coen en Sander Show.</i> 305 00:19:21,076 --> 00:19:24,163 I didn't really know what to do. I just, sort of, kept talking. 306 00:19:24,246 --> 00:19:26,248 <i>The party is definitely canceled.</i> 307 00:19:26,331 --> 00:19:28,041 <i>You could've had 6,000 presents.</i> 308 00:19:28,125 --> 00:19:30,961 <i>That'd be great, but it wouldn't</i> <i>cover the cost of a new house.</i> 309 00:19:31,962 --> 00:19:34,548 <i>By the way,</i> <i>am I live on the radio right now?</i> 310 00:19:34,631 --> 00:19:37,426 -<i>Yes! Ha-ha!</i> -<i>Yes! 3FM! Merthe!</i> 311 00:19:40,137 --> 00:19:42,681 Then it went huge in the national media. 312 00:19:42,764 --> 00:19:45,142 The town of Haren is getting ready for the arrival 313 00:19:45,225 --> 00:19:47,102 of thousands of unwanted partygoers. 314 00:19:47,186 --> 00:19:50,772 <i>50,000 invitations</i> <i>have now been sent via the internet.</i> 315 00:19:50,856 --> 00:19:53,942 One, two, three. Do it! Do it! 316 00:19:58,071 --> 00:20:02,951 When a crazy video of a poster rolling off of a building hit the news, 317 00:20:03,035 --> 00:20:07,956 we started realizing, okay, this is really going to-- to happen. 318 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:09,374 There were already rumors 319 00:20:09,458 --> 00:20:12,836 about people getting on buses from different cities in the Netherlands. 320 00:20:14,296 --> 00:20:16,548 <i>Residents on the Stationsweg in Haren</i> 321 00:20:16,632 --> 00:20:18,050 <i>are worried.</i> 322 00:20:19,051 --> 00:20:22,012 There were now thousands of people coming. 323 00:20:22,095 --> 00:20:25,015 It's even bigger than I was thinking at the start. 324 00:20:27,893 --> 00:20:30,020 I had a very nasty feeling. 325 00:20:30,103 --> 00:20:33,106 Uh, we are just not ready to-- to host all these people. 326 00:20:37,069 --> 00:20:40,864 At this point, we kept the curtains closed 24/7. 327 00:20:41,615 --> 00:20:43,867 People were always taking pictures of the house. 328 00:20:44,952 --> 00:20:48,038 I couldn't go to volleyball. I couldn't go to school. 329 00:20:48,121 --> 00:20:50,415 People started making masks of my face. 330 00:20:50,499 --> 00:20:54,086 It's almost like <i>The Purge</i> where you're trapped in your house, 331 00:20:54,169 --> 00:20:58,048 and people are ringing the doorbell and trying to get in. 332 00:20:59,299 --> 00:21:02,135 {\an8}Our target for this year's Purge is hiding in your home. 333 00:21:05,472 --> 00:21:08,016 It wasn't just, you know, people making fun anymore. 334 00:21:08,100 --> 00:21:10,727 They also became a little bit scary. 335 00:21:15,274 --> 00:21:19,319 The day before the party, I was getting more and more nervous. 336 00:21:19,820 --> 00:21:22,155 I was thinking this is not a place 337 00:21:22,239 --> 00:21:24,283 where you wanna host a few thousand people. 338 00:21:24,866 --> 00:21:27,160 It's gonna be very, very dangerous. 339 00:21:27,911 --> 00:21:31,456 If the council doesn't take it seriously, I had to come up with a plan. 340 00:21:34,376 --> 00:21:39,172 The only solution was to organize an alternative party outside of Haren. 341 00:21:39,256 --> 00:21:43,343 I said to the city council, "I don't wanna make a penny on this." 342 00:21:43,927 --> 00:21:47,222 So they were like, "Oh, this may be a good idea." 343 00:21:47,306 --> 00:21:48,807 "Uh, can you work that out for us?" 344 00:21:49,641 --> 00:21:52,769 Normally, it takes months to organize a very big party. 345 00:21:52,853 --> 00:21:56,273 We only had like 24 hours to organize this. 346 00:21:56,356 --> 00:21:57,524 I sent a plan. 347 00:21:58,025 --> 00:21:59,985 But Mayor Bats had the final say… 348 00:22:00,986 --> 00:22:04,531 …and I was really praying that he was making the right choice. 349 00:22:05,657 --> 00:22:07,409 The day before the party, 350 00:22:08,201 --> 00:22:11,204 I was invited for a meeting with the mayor. 351 00:22:12,831 --> 00:22:16,710 And I really hoped that the mayor would say to us, 352 00:22:16,793 --> 00:22:19,129 "Okay, I made a decision, 353 00:22:19,212 --> 00:22:24,343 and I will close every road to Haren, so no one can come in." 354 00:22:25,385 --> 00:22:27,679 But the mayor didn't wanna do that. 355 00:22:28,305 --> 00:22:30,265 I have a very clear message. 356 00:22:30,349 --> 00:22:31,516 This party is canceled. 357 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:34,728 Just so everyone is clear, there is no party here. 358 00:22:34,811 --> 00:22:37,898 I got a bit angry when I heard that. 359 00:22:37,981 --> 00:22:41,193 Why don't you take the youth seriously? 360 00:22:42,736 --> 00:22:44,821 There was no kid that thought, 361 00:22:44,905 --> 00:22:48,408 "Oh, well, if he says there's no party, I believe him." 362 00:22:48,492 --> 00:22:51,495 It was too late. It was the wrong message. 363 00:22:52,996 --> 00:22:55,540 I received a call from the city council. 364 00:22:55,624 --> 00:22:59,878 Uh, the mayor decided to not do this alternative party 365 00:23:00,379 --> 00:23:02,130 but just work with police. 366 00:23:03,673 --> 00:23:06,593 They were very stupid, and they were naive. 367 00:23:07,302 --> 00:23:10,847 There was no music, there was no stage, there was nothing. 368 00:23:10,931 --> 00:23:12,933 And if you don't provide these things, 369 00:23:13,016 --> 00:23:15,685 the kids will find ways to have a good time. 370 00:23:24,194 --> 00:23:26,113 <i>Stuk </i>means broken. 371 00:23:27,906 --> 00:23:31,952 {\an8}We want to break television channels because they have rules. 372 00:23:32,035 --> 00:23:32,994 We hate rules. 373 00:23:34,579 --> 00:23:39,543 We do, like, <i>Jackass </i>stuff. Crazy challenges every fucking week. 374 00:23:43,630 --> 00:23:46,883 Everybody was texting, "Hey, are you going to Project X Haren?" 375 00:23:46,967 --> 00:23:48,510 "This party is gonna be epic." 376 00:23:48,593 --> 00:23:51,346 "Everybody is gonna talk about it, so you need to be there." 377 00:23:51,430 --> 00:23:52,431 We had a dream. 378 00:23:52,514 --> 00:23:55,267 We want to have the biggest YouTube channel in the world. 379 00:23:55,350 --> 00:23:57,102 So this was our move. 380 00:23:57,185 --> 00:23:59,980 Let's fucking film this shit, 381 00:24:00,564 --> 00:24:01,731 and let's have fun. 382 00:24:02,399 --> 00:24:05,527 You wanna go to Haren? Party? Project X! 383 00:24:07,028 --> 00:24:07,863 Here we go. 384 00:24:11,324 --> 00:24:13,285 It was the morning of the party. 385 00:24:13,910 --> 00:24:18,498 {\an8}The city council of Haren asked me to help monitor social media 386 00:24:18,582 --> 00:24:20,709 {\an8}because they did not have that experience. 387 00:24:21,209 --> 00:24:26,173 I was asked to put the message out that there would not be a party. 388 00:24:28,467 --> 00:24:30,510 {\an8}My boss told me, "Do whatever it takes." 389 00:24:32,804 --> 00:24:35,724 {\an8}Just keep telling the public, "Do not come to Haren." 390 00:24:35,807 --> 00:24:37,517 "There is no party." 391 00:24:38,477 --> 00:24:41,521 {\an8}But we were just this tiny town with four likes. 392 00:24:41,605 --> 00:24:44,941 We started to interact, uh, but it was impossible to do. 393 00:24:47,402 --> 00:24:49,988 It was a-- a David and Goliath situation. 394 00:24:53,241 --> 00:24:56,036 When I checked Facebook on the day of the event, 395 00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,289 about 350,000 people had been invited. 396 00:24:59,372 --> 00:25:03,502 So the timeline was just streaming with posts. 397 00:25:06,838 --> 00:25:09,132 People were gearing up to-- to come. 398 00:25:15,388 --> 00:25:18,475 My youngest daughter worked in the supermarket. 399 00:25:19,100 --> 00:25:23,563 She told me that there were a lot of strange people buying a lot of alcohol. 400 00:25:23,647 --> 00:25:26,608 Everyone was just trying to get their hands on alcohol. 401 00:25:26,691 --> 00:25:29,444 We were 16, and in the Netherlands, it means you can drink. 402 00:25:29,528 --> 00:25:31,112 We didn't need a fake ID like McLovin. 403 00:25:38,537 --> 00:25:41,498 Why did you decide to get the train here to Haren? 404 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:44,251 Uh, just out of curiosity really. 405 00:25:44,334 --> 00:25:46,878 It'll be an experience to see something like this. 406 00:25:49,381 --> 00:25:52,384 By lunchtime, there were people really gathering 407 00:25:52,467 --> 00:25:56,555 in front of the house in large numbers and planning to stay. 408 00:25:59,975 --> 00:26:02,519 The press was ringing the doorbell a lot. 409 00:26:02,602 --> 00:26:05,188 Still quiet at Merthe's. We'll ring the doorbell. 410 00:26:05,272 --> 00:26:06,273 Good afternoon. 411 00:26:07,107 --> 00:26:08,149 No cameras. 412 00:26:08,692 --> 00:26:11,111 Her father has had enough of this. 413 00:26:13,029 --> 00:26:16,074 {\an8}I was doing live coverage for Project X Haren. 414 00:26:16,950 --> 00:26:18,868 {\an8}When I drove to Merthe's street, 415 00:26:20,203 --> 00:26:22,289 they had taken away the street signs. 416 00:26:25,458 --> 00:26:26,751 I guess it was kind of funny. 417 00:26:26,835 --> 00:26:30,964 People have navigation on their phones, so it's not very hard to get there. 418 00:26:35,302 --> 00:26:36,928 When I looked outside, 419 00:26:37,429 --> 00:26:40,265 so many people had gathered in front of the house 420 00:26:40,348 --> 00:26:42,934 that it started to feel unsafe. 421 00:26:43,018 --> 00:26:45,604 So that was the moment where I said, "I want to go." 422 00:26:46,646 --> 00:26:49,566 There were too many people standing in front of her house. 423 00:26:49,649 --> 00:26:52,235 And the police decided, "Okay, we're going to stop this," 424 00:26:52,319 --> 00:26:55,280 and they were closing both ends of the street. 425 00:26:56,239 --> 00:26:58,241 I was very relieved that we left. 426 00:27:00,201 --> 00:27:03,955 When we arrived at my aunt's house, I don't think we said much. 427 00:27:04,039 --> 00:27:08,293 We just sat there watching everything as it unfolded. 428 00:27:08,376 --> 00:27:10,795 <i>Just two more hours,</i> <i>and the party starts in Haren</i> 429 00:27:10,879 --> 00:27:13,465 for 16-year-old Merthe. 430 00:27:13,548 --> 00:27:16,801 <i>The man next to me now,</i> <i>police spokesman Paul Heidanus,</i> 431 00:27:16,885 --> 00:27:19,971 stands here with a cautious smile. 432 00:27:20,055 --> 00:27:24,726 Mr. Heidanus, I understand you have 300 police officers on standby? 433 00:27:24,809 --> 00:27:28,021 {\an8}I won't say anything about the measures we have taken. 434 00:27:28,104 --> 00:27:30,774 But let it be clear, we know what we're doing. 435 00:27:33,568 --> 00:27:35,612 Everything was under control. 436 00:27:35,695 --> 00:27:37,614 My shift ended, so I left. 437 00:27:39,157 --> 00:27:41,701 I was cycling, and then I stopped. 438 00:27:41,785 --> 00:27:47,123 And I saw this endless line of cars coming in, 439 00:27:47,207 --> 00:27:50,794 and people walking towards Haren. 440 00:27:52,253 --> 00:27:53,630 We were outnumbered. 441 00:27:56,299 --> 00:27:58,718 So I called the people at the-- at the town hall, 442 00:27:58,802 --> 00:27:59,886 and, uh, I said, 443 00:28:00,762 --> 00:28:02,931 "This message we put out, 444 00:28:03,598 --> 00:28:04,724 it didn't work." 445 00:28:09,437 --> 00:28:11,189 Every time a train arrived, 446 00:28:11,272 --> 00:28:14,275 I saw this stream of people walking past us. 447 00:28:16,986 --> 00:28:20,740 {\an8}I didn't know Merthe, but I'm a party animal myself. 448 00:28:21,825 --> 00:28:26,204 And we were just walking to Haren, you know, with a big-ass group. 449 00:28:27,497 --> 00:28:28,707 The vibes was nice. 450 00:28:30,750 --> 00:28:31,710 Hey! 451 00:28:31,793 --> 00:28:33,294 When I arrived at the party, 452 00:28:33,378 --> 00:28:34,796 I saw people having fun. 453 00:28:40,802 --> 00:28:43,471 We could hear the shouting and screaming. 454 00:28:44,431 --> 00:28:46,266 We closed the doors and the windows. 455 00:28:47,267 --> 00:28:49,769 You cannot do very much more than that. 456 00:28:50,270 --> 00:28:52,647 Very scary. Very scary. 457 00:28:54,649 --> 00:28:58,820 The busier it-- it got, the-- the crazier it got, really. 458 00:29:08,621 --> 00:29:09,622 Chaos. 459 00:29:12,542 --> 00:29:14,335 This is absolutely crazy. 460 00:29:17,172 --> 00:29:19,841 I've never known someone have so many friends. 461 00:29:19,924 --> 00:29:22,886 Project X Haren can start, we are here! 462 00:29:22,969 --> 00:29:26,681 Everybody was jumping, drinking beer, having fun. 463 00:29:30,685 --> 00:29:34,397 They were thinking, "Let's have the best night of our life." 464 00:29:41,404 --> 00:29:44,657 Everybody was screaming like crazy animals. 465 00:29:44,741 --> 00:29:51,623 Where is the party? The party is here! 466 00:29:51,706 --> 00:29:52,749 I loved it. 467 00:29:55,168 --> 00:29:58,588 I still sometimes, in my head, sing this song. 468 00:29:58,671 --> 00:30:00,715 Where is the party? 469 00:30:00,799 --> 00:30:02,759 Because that's what I heard all night. 470 00:30:03,468 --> 00:30:05,094 A lot of these young people 471 00:30:05,178 --> 00:30:08,807 were really expecting to find some sort of a party. 472 00:30:08,890 --> 00:30:14,354 And all they found was-- was barriers and a few police officers 473 00:30:14,437 --> 00:30:17,899 and a crowd that was getting bigger and bigger and bigger. 474 00:30:17,982 --> 00:30:19,859 Oh, sorry! 475 00:30:19,943 --> 00:30:25,490 And every time I was going live, these strange, stupid things happened. 476 00:30:25,573 --> 00:30:26,699 Arnoud? 477 00:30:26,783 --> 00:30:29,160 Hey, guys, what are you doing here? 478 00:30:29,244 --> 00:30:33,414 Good vibes, motherfucker! 479 00:30:33,998 --> 00:30:37,585 And I was like, "How long are we going to keep this going?" 480 00:30:39,295 --> 00:30:45,301 A Facebook party attracts strange people from all over the country. 481 00:30:45,385 --> 00:30:48,179 I've just been showered in whiskey. 482 00:30:49,556 --> 00:30:53,434 -I think it's time to move on from here. -Good, Arnoud Bodde. Thank you. 483 00:30:57,021 --> 00:30:59,190 {\an8}I walked with the dog to the center 484 00:30:59,274 --> 00:31:00,817 {\an8}to see what was happening. 485 00:31:04,362 --> 00:31:07,198 Behind me, there was a group of people… 486 00:31:08,783 --> 00:31:11,035 …chanting, making noise. 487 00:31:12,203 --> 00:31:15,915 And then, suddenly, I felt a hit on the head. 488 00:31:15,999 --> 00:31:17,333 And, immediately, 489 00:31:17,417 --> 00:31:19,752 I heard glass breaking. 490 00:31:20,420 --> 00:31:23,798 They threw a bottle… at my head. 491 00:31:24,299 --> 00:31:26,885 The dog started to shake. 492 00:31:29,971 --> 00:31:35,310 That's when I felt that the atmosphere turned around. 493 00:31:36,853 --> 00:31:38,187 You could feel it in the air. 494 00:31:38,271 --> 00:31:40,398 You could see, in a minute, 495 00:31:41,024 --> 00:31:42,692 it can explode. 496 00:31:46,154 --> 00:31:49,532 We are now in Merthe's street, and it's madness. 497 00:31:50,783 --> 00:31:53,953 It looks like we entered a football stadium. 498 00:31:54,037 --> 00:31:56,998 Thousands and thousands of young people. 499 00:31:57,081 --> 00:31:59,626 And we have only ten officers. 500 00:32:05,298 --> 00:32:07,467 I saw so many people. 501 00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:10,178 More and more and more. 502 00:32:14,599 --> 00:32:18,019 And I was like, "No way that there's 300 police officers 503 00:32:18,102 --> 00:32:19,437 in the village right now." 504 00:32:23,107 --> 00:32:25,693 There was obviously no plan. 505 00:32:26,277 --> 00:32:27,570 These were not riot police. 506 00:32:27,654 --> 00:32:29,572 They were just regular cops… 507 00:32:30,615 --> 00:32:34,327 …who were looking at each other, scared. 508 00:32:37,956 --> 00:32:42,752 The police, they were outnumbered by… thousands. 509 00:32:42,835 --> 00:32:46,631 And I wasn't sure that they were gonna hold the line much longer. 510 00:32:50,343 --> 00:32:52,261 I was very worried they'd reach the house… 511 00:32:54,597 --> 00:32:57,141 …and burn it down, pretty much like in the movie. 512 00:32:59,435 --> 00:33:01,270 They saw the movie <i>Project X.</i> 513 00:33:01,771 --> 00:33:04,399 They want to have the party in the house. 514 00:33:04,482 --> 00:33:07,777 They want to have the swimming pool, but they don't get it. 515 00:33:08,361 --> 00:33:10,822 And people get really, really drunk. 516 00:33:15,743 --> 00:33:18,830 And then some people get aggressive. 517 00:33:35,096 --> 00:33:37,140 Everybody was screaming. 518 00:33:39,642 --> 00:33:41,894 We thought, "What the hell is happening here?" 519 00:33:43,438 --> 00:33:47,608 I opened up my Twitter. I saw them start to throw bottles. 520 00:33:48,735 --> 00:33:51,738 And suddenly I hear a lot of sirens. 521 00:33:52,739 --> 00:33:54,615 Oh no. Now-- Now it's gonna happen. 522 00:34:00,747 --> 00:34:04,584 If you invite the police to a party, there's only one outcome. 523 00:34:04,667 --> 00:34:06,461 There's gonna be a riot. 524 00:34:06,544 --> 00:34:08,087 Whoa! 525 00:34:08,171 --> 00:34:11,132 The police have fired a warning shot. 526 00:34:11,215 --> 00:34:14,093 The police made one fucking big mistake. 527 00:34:14,177 --> 00:34:17,430 They were trying to push us away. 528 00:34:21,768 --> 00:34:23,644 Now it's really getting out of hand. 529 00:34:25,813 --> 00:34:27,774 Fuck, it's getting crazy now. 530 00:34:32,361 --> 00:34:34,697 They started a war they couldn't win. 531 00:34:34,781 --> 00:34:37,241 It was the police that provoked this. 532 00:34:37,325 --> 00:34:40,870 Nothing ever happens here, and we're not allowed to go crazy. 533 00:34:41,871 --> 00:34:43,539 People tasted that freedom. 534 00:34:43,623 --> 00:34:45,541 And when the riot police started to take it away, 535 00:34:45,625 --> 00:34:46,834 people just went berserk. 536 00:34:57,970 --> 00:34:59,388 This is fucking bizarre. 537 00:35:00,306 --> 00:35:02,683 How long will the police let this go on? 538 00:35:04,310 --> 00:35:06,854 I was worried about my dad because 539 00:35:06,938 --> 00:35:08,314 he had decided to stay. 540 00:35:08,856 --> 00:35:11,400 He wanted to be there for the neighbors. 541 00:35:11,901 --> 00:35:16,906 I hoped that he wouldn't somehow get caught up in that crowd. 542 00:35:20,159 --> 00:35:21,911 We didn't go to the party. 543 00:35:21,994 --> 00:35:24,539 And I also didn't want to contribute to a crowd 544 00:35:24,622 --> 00:35:26,624 that is putting her family in danger. 545 00:35:27,625 --> 00:35:30,503 {\an8}I remember the footage from the news. 546 00:35:30,586 --> 00:35:33,798 It was the police hitting people. 547 00:35:34,590 --> 00:35:36,884 The police were getting, also, aggressive. 548 00:35:36,968 --> 00:35:39,428 If somebody was getting close to the police, 549 00:35:39,512 --> 00:35:41,430 the police would… 550 00:35:42,014 --> 00:35:43,099 …smash the guy. 551 00:35:53,234 --> 00:35:56,821 I was filming this. I was like, "Okay. Oh my God. What's happening here?" 552 00:35:56,904 --> 00:35:59,073 I've never seen this before in the Netherlands. 553 00:35:59,157 --> 00:36:02,326 Hit people that hard when they are laying on the ground? 554 00:36:02,410 --> 00:36:03,578 That's wild. 555 00:36:04,245 --> 00:36:05,663 I fell down. 556 00:36:05,746 --> 00:36:07,081 And, yeah, 557 00:36:07,165 --> 00:36:11,544 riot police started, like, attacking my legs with their bats and stuff. 558 00:36:12,211 --> 00:36:15,673 You know, but I managed to get up and got away. 559 00:36:15,756 --> 00:36:18,926 And I was like, "Okay, you wanna treat me like a rioter?" 560 00:36:19,510 --> 00:36:21,137 "Then I'll become a rioter." 561 00:36:33,733 --> 00:36:36,444 I saw people bending down a pole. 562 00:36:36,527 --> 00:36:38,696 So I just decided to help them. 563 00:36:45,661 --> 00:36:46,662 I saw people… 564 00:36:48,956 --> 00:36:52,335 running through our garden to avoid the police. 565 00:36:53,377 --> 00:36:56,505 Normally, you see it on television, and it's far away, 566 00:36:56,589 --> 00:36:58,799 but now we had it in our front yard. 567 00:37:01,594 --> 00:37:04,889 People were throwing Molotov cocktails into the cars. 568 00:37:08,226 --> 00:37:13,439 And I thought, "Oh my God, this is like… <i>Call of Duty."</i> 569 00:37:14,398 --> 00:37:15,399 "This is real." 570 00:37:15,483 --> 00:37:17,276 "This is fucking real." 571 00:37:25,117 --> 00:37:28,621 I saw this very big guy grabbing a pole, 572 00:37:29,288 --> 00:37:32,416 and he just started bashing in the windows of the supermarkets. 573 00:37:35,336 --> 00:37:38,798 The thing that was going through my head was, "Free cigarette." 574 00:37:44,595 --> 00:37:46,013 So I put on my hood, 575 00:37:47,682 --> 00:37:51,269 and I was actually the first one to go inside. 576 00:37:51,352 --> 00:37:53,354 So I just filled up the bag to the brim. 577 00:37:53,437 --> 00:37:54,814 I was living in the moment. 578 00:37:54,897 --> 00:37:57,858 I felt alive, I guess. You know? 579 00:38:01,112 --> 00:38:03,781 We were just filming the robbery. 580 00:38:05,408 --> 00:38:06,909 But that was a wrong decision. 581 00:38:06,993 --> 00:38:11,789 In just one second, shit hits the fan. 582 00:38:12,957 --> 00:38:16,877 "Hey! Hey! They're filming us! They're filming us!" 583 00:38:16,961 --> 00:38:18,838 "Grab them! Grab them!" 584 00:38:23,634 --> 00:38:29,056 And after a-- a few seconds, you were laying on the ground. 585 00:38:29,140 --> 00:38:32,143 And people were trying to get his camera, "Give me the camera!" 586 00:38:32,226 --> 00:38:36,063 I saw these arms with big tattoos, like, bam, bam! 587 00:38:36,147 --> 00:38:41,819 And the only thing that I could do is grab the people away from him 588 00:38:41,902 --> 00:38:44,447 because I want to have the footage. 589 00:38:44,530 --> 00:38:46,532 We filmed something new. 590 00:38:47,116 --> 00:38:52,121 So, if you have 500 subscribers in Holland, just 500, 591 00:38:52,204 --> 00:38:55,207 this was the moment for us to grow. 592 00:38:55,291 --> 00:38:57,626 And you wanna save my life because otherwise-- 593 00:38:57,710 --> 00:38:58,961 That's the second part. 594 00:39:00,004 --> 00:39:00,963 No, no, no. 595 00:39:01,547 --> 00:39:03,215 Without him, I was pretty dead. 596 00:39:03,299 --> 00:39:06,844 We jumped him over a-- a roof, right? 597 00:39:06,927 --> 00:39:08,054 I was really scared. 598 00:39:08,137 --> 00:39:11,349 The camera, they hit it really hard. 599 00:39:11,432 --> 00:39:14,643 But we managed to get the tape. We saved it. 600 00:39:15,227 --> 00:39:17,063 Okay, that's it. No more! 601 00:39:17,146 --> 00:39:19,482 What we just experienced was insane. 602 00:39:19,565 --> 00:39:21,275 I was scared to death. 603 00:39:21,359 --> 00:39:22,777 We're sitting in a car. 604 00:39:23,361 --> 00:39:25,029 And we say, "We have gold." 605 00:39:25,613 --> 00:39:27,615 "Let's get out of this war zone." 606 00:39:34,038 --> 00:39:36,374 At some point in the evening… 607 00:39:36,457 --> 00:39:40,294 …my dad was told by the police… 608 00:39:40,378 --> 00:39:43,714 …that two girls had died in the crowd. 609 00:39:57,895 --> 00:39:59,105 Sorry. 610 00:40:03,484 --> 00:40:04,944 So that was tough. 611 00:40:05,945 --> 00:40:10,574 People are… dying on your birthday party, and… 612 00:40:11,742 --> 00:40:14,453 somehow the role you played in that, 613 00:40:14,537 --> 00:40:17,289 and it's just an empty feeling. 614 00:40:17,373 --> 00:40:19,458 Like, it-- That's-- You can't, uh… 615 00:40:20,709 --> 00:40:22,670 Can't grasp that, I don't think. 616 00:40:22,753 --> 00:40:25,381 <i>On Twitter, there are rumors</i> 617 00:40:25,464 --> 00:40:27,675 <i>that a girl has been crushed to death,</i> 618 00:40:27,758 --> 00:40:29,718 <i>but there are tweets</i> <i>that say it's not true.</i> 619 00:40:29,802 --> 00:40:30,761 <i>What do you know?</i> 620 00:40:30,845 --> 00:40:34,974 <i>We also read Twitter</i> <i>and have the same information,</i> 621 00:40:35,057 --> 00:40:37,601 <i>but we have not heard this</i> <i>from the police.</i> 622 00:40:41,647 --> 00:40:43,190 I wanted to bike home, 623 00:40:43,691 --> 00:40:46,402 but I just couldn't because there was glass everywhere. 624 00:40:46,485 --> 00:40:49,238 It looked like a tornado had hit the town. 625 00:40:50,364 --> 00:40:52,616 And I was walking, and I felt guilty. 626 00:40:52,700 --> 00:40:54,660 I'm sad to be associated with this. 627 00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:04,170 Later, luckily, we heard that nobody had died. 628 00:41:05,463 --> 00:41:07,882 But I think the emotional impact is already done. 629 00:41:09,717 --> 00:41:12,887 As it got to midnight, the police finally took control, 630 00:41:12,970 --> 00:41:14,388 and things calmed down. 631 00:41:15,556 --> 00:41:17,475 And then I saw this car. 632 00:41:17,558 --> 00:41:21,353 The windscreen was smashed, the side mirrors were off. 633 00:41:21,437 --> 00:41:23,814 There were footsteps on the top of the car. 634 00:41:25,024 --> 00:41:29,945 There was this big triangle-shaped brick, uh, on the passenger seat. 635 00:41:30,738 --> 00:41:32,698 I was standing there looking at it. 636 00:41:32,781 --> 00:41:33,741 And then behind me, 637 00:41:33,824 --> 00:41:36,577 I-- I heard this voice of a colleague of mine, 638 00:41:36,660 --> 00:41:38,204 "Is that your car?" 639 00:41:38,704 --> 00:41:40,748 I said, "Yep, that's mine." 640 00:41:40,831 --> 00:41:42,625 Um… 641 00:41:42,708 --> 00:41:45,753 I've kept the brick as a sort of a-- a souvenir. 642 00:41:45,836 --> 00:41:47,880 My girlfriend has asked me a couple of times, 643 00:41:47,963 --> 00:41:49,465 "Are we still keeping that?" 644 00:41:49,548 --> 00:41:52,801 And I'm like, "Yeah, we're-- we're keeping the brick." 645 00:41:55,596 --> 00:41:57,348 We stayed up the whole night, 646 00:41:58,724 --> 00:42:00,059 cutting the film, 647 00:42:01,936 --> 00:42:03,771 and put it on our website. 648 00:42:03,854 --> 00:42:06,649 After one hour, it goes viral. 649 00:42:11,612 --> 00:42:15,282 Yeah, that was the really first big hit for StukTV. 650 00:42:15,366 --> 00:42:17,576 It started with Project X Haren. 651 00:42:17,660 --> 00:42:21,664 And after 12 years, we're one of the biggest YouTube channels in Holland. 652 00:42:22,831 --> 00:42:25,626 <i>From initial analysis, we are dealing with</i> 653 00:42:25,709 --> 00:42:29,588 <i>what I can only call scum</i> 654 00:42:29,672 --> 00:42:33,968 who, in a violent, well-prepared manner, consciously sought out confrontation. 655 00:42:34,051 --> 00:42:37,680 The mayor and the police didn't take responsibility. 656 00:42:38,180 --> 00:42:40,808 He called the kids scum. I didn't agree with him. 657 00:42:40,891 --> 00:42:43,852 The kids were just coming to Haren to have a good time. 658 00:42:43,936 --> 00:42:48,399 And they did everything to not provide that. 659 00:42:50,526 --> 00:42:53,571 <i>The rioters have left</i> <i>the people of Haren in shock.</i> 660 00:42:53,654 --> 00:42:56,574 <i>The total cost of the damage is unknown.</i> 661 00:42:57,324 --> 00:43:00,369 All the windows are broken. It's so bad. 662 00:43:00,452 --> 00:43:05,499 We'll have to work hard today to get Haren clean again. 663 00:43:05,583 --> 00:43:08,210 We're still the best community in the Netherlands. 664 00:43:09,545 --> 00:43:10,421 Sorry. 665 00:43:11,964 --> 00:43:15,259 The next day, I went for a walk with my husband, 666 00:43:15,342 --> 00:43:17,344 and everything was already cleaned up. 667 00:43:18,596 --> 00:43:22,099 I was very, very proud of the people in my town. 668 00:43:27,646 --> 00:43:29,356 I woke up with a hangover, 669 00:43:29,857 --> 00:43:33,444 and everything was all over Facebook. 670 00:43:34,570 --> 00:43:38,198 And people were tagging my name under those videos. 671 00:43:39,033 --> 00:43:40,159 Fucking snitches. 672 00:43:41,410 --> 00:43:43,787 {\an8}This was gonna come back on me one way or another. 673 00:43:43,871 --> 00:43:49,668 So I just decided to go back and return what I stole. 674 00:43:50,252 --> 00:43:52,546 I was like, "Oh, damn, I fucked up." 675 00:44:03,974 --> 00:44:05,142 On tonight's show, 676 00:44:05,225 --> 00:44:09,229 what are the consequences of the critical report on Project X Haren 677 00:44:09,313 --> 00:44:11,482 for the mayor and the police chief? 678 00:44:19,573 --> 00:44:24,453 The one time he should have been here and not taken any risks 679 00:44:24,536 --> 00:44:27,373 and just protected the people, 680 00:44:27,456 --> 00:44:28,916 it did not go well. 681 00:44:30,334 --> 00:44:32,169 {\an8}Things should have gone differently. 682 00:44:32,878 --> 00:44:35,506 {\an8}Let there be no misunderstanding about that. 683 00:44:36,006 --> 00:44:42,012 {\an8}And for that, here today, I apologize. 684 00:44:53,816 --> 00:44:56,860 A couple of years after Project X, I was at a party, 685 00:44:56,944 --> 00:44:58,862 and in comes walking Merthe. 686 00:45:00,948 --> 00:45:03,534 And I was like-- I recognized her immediately. 687 00:45:03,617 --> 00:45:06,704 But because of the shame I felt, I didn't say anything. 688 00:45:07,287 --> 00:45:11,291 His face looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. 689 00:45:11,959 --> 00:45:15,713 She looked at me, I looked at her. She was like, "You're that guy, right?" 690 00:45:16,255 --> 00:45:18,048 I was like, "Yeah, that's me." 691 00:45:18,132 --> 00:45:21,009 She's like, "Okay, it's fine. It's in the past. Don't worry about it." 692 00:45:21,093 --> 00:45:23,011 "And we were young and, uh, stupid." 693 00:45:24,972 --> 00:45:27,141 I don't think most people that came to the party 694 00:45:27,224 --> 00:45:30,561 were intending to riot or to commit a crime. 695 00:45:31,186 --> 00:45:33,355 I think a lot of people came because they wanted a party. 696 00:45:34,606 --> 00:45:38,444 I think it's sort of a normal inherent thing 697 00:45:38,527 --> 00:45:42,448 in teenagers around that age, 698 00:45:42,531 --> 00:45:46,368 that they wanna rebel and take their freedom, 699 00:45:47,911 --> 00:45:51,039 express their… personalities. 700 00:45:53,709 --> 00:45:56,128 I definitely would have gone if it wasn't my party. 701 00:45:57,305 --> 00:46:57,656 Do you want subtitles for any video? -=[ ai.OpenSubtitles.com ]=-